Greens keen to pick up protest vote
The Green Party's Adrian Ramsay
, a lynchpin of Green support in the region is standing down as a councillor in Norwich. It ends eight years on the council he was elected to at the tender age of 21.
He has now risen to the dizzying heights of Deputy Leader of the .
"I need to concentrate on my national role but I will still be campaigning in Norwich," he says.
is once again hoping that this will be the election when they make the big breakthrough.
"I don't think we've reached a glass ceiling. We're growing around the region and particularly in Norwich. I think there are seats we can gain there - seats we contested strongly last time."
They are already in opposition in the city with 14 councillors to 16 and the party is hopeful of taking votes from disaffected who are unhappy at the coalition.
Mr Ramsay argues: "We've picked up lots of support in the last 13 years from people who felt let down by the Labour Government when they wanted a new type of politics and didn't get it. Similarly a lot of them voted Lib Dem.
"A lot of them voted Lib Dem tactically at the general election and feel let down in all sorts of ways on lots of issues and we have already started to see lots more people joining the Green Party who used to be in the Lib Dems. And in the local elections in Norwich in September we made another gain from the Lib Dems.
"We've got 38 councillors across the East of England, that's more than any other region in the country. It really is the Green Party that's strong in terms of organisation and picking up support from people who feel let down by the other parties."
Now firmly established in Norwich, the Greens are hoping for further success.
With the Lib Dems in Government they are competing to take over as the party of the protest vote.
Welcome to the political blog for the East. I'm Deborah McGurran, the 大象传媒's Political Editor for the region. From Lowestoft to Luton, this is the place for politics with an eastern twist.
Comment number 1.
At 1st May 2011, Steve Nimmons wrote:I would hope that anyone considering voting Green 'as a protest' would be cognisant of some basic facts:
鈥 Green Party Leader Caroline Lucas is a high-profile supporter of Republic, which believes in turning Britain into a republic and discontinuing the Monarchy. Green Party literature describes the Monarchy as 鈥榓rchaic鈥.
鈥 The Green Party believe in the legalisation of dangerous drugs, including cannabis.
鈥 The Green Party would take Britain out of NATO, the world鈥檚 'most important' intergovernmental military alliance.
鈥 The Green Party believe that 鈥渓and should not be treated as a capital investment nor traded for speculative profit鈥 and that "Eliminating speculation in land and stabilising prices should make more land available at cheaper prices, enabling more worker's co-operatives..."
The Green Party promotes some radical left wing ideals: an end to the British Monarchy, an end to Britain鈥檚 key role in NATO, the legalisation of dangerous drugs and a challenge to the free market foundations of land ownership.
Now that's quite a protest vote!
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